Within this sequel to the novella Penric’s Mission, the injured Penric, a Temple sorcerer and learned divine, tries to guide the betrayed General Arisaydia and his widowed sister Nikys across the last hundred mls of hostile Cedonia to security in the Duchy of Orbas.

In the city of Sosie, the fugitive get together encounters unexpected delays, and even more unexpected opportunities and hazards, as the courtesan Mira of Adria, one of the ten dead women whose imprints constitute the personality from the chaos demon Desdemona, comes to the fore with her own special expertise.